MORE zero-tolerance ridiculousness

[Dreamstalker]

Student ordered to attend reform school for camping utensil

The newly-minted Cub Scout brought a knife/fork/spoon camping utensil to school...not even for show-and-tell, he just wanted to use it to eat his lunch. Why is he being packed off to reform school?

The only way I could see the school's position is...oh wait, I can't.

I've been bit by 'zero tolerance' before...suspended and dragged before the principal for finally standing up to a bully (of course the school refused to do anything about the kid who was doing the bullying), and almost suspended in high school for carrying a multitool (I was a stagehand at the time).

[Nyoibo]

The most pathetic comment I have ever heard

"There is no parent who wants to get a phone call where they hear that their child no longer has two good seeing eyes because there was a scuffle and someone pulled out a knife," said George Evans, the school district board's president.

Um... IT'S A SCHOOL, there's pens, pencils, compases any of them could take out an eye, and it's a damn sight more likely that a pen's going to be in a kids hand than them pulling a knife. Anyone who doesn't think a pen can be a weapon watch The Bourne Identity, hell some of my Ninjutsu training was based around every day itens, guess what was No. 1? Yup a pen.

This really steps over the line into stupidity.

[Dreamstalker]

I don't have any "formal" training yet I'm reasonably aware of what ordinary items can be used as weapons and how.

If that kid gets lumped into reform school with all the real problems he WILL get needlessly hurt/traumatized (defenseless child thrown in with the worst of the bullies)...and I bet that if taken to task about it, the school will find some way to say "not our problem". I can't believe the jerks who are actually agreeing with the school (it doesn't look like most of them are, at least now).

I really hope the parents can fight this. Who the HELL could ever think that sending a six-year-old to reform school would be a good idea?

[joe hx]

Ninjutsu training was based around every day items, guess what was No. 1? Yup a pen.

I wanted to make a "pencil must me No. 2" joke but it doesn't seem to be working...

Does anyone remember when that kid was expelled for pretending a chicken leg was a gun?

[Greenday]

What kind of world do we live in where you can't bring a knife into school? Oh, wait, a sensible one. I was in school before zero tolerance started. We weren't allowed to bring in knives then so why is it so crazy that someone get punished for bring a knife into school now?

[Depot Denizen]

Nanny-state nonsense. Hell, when I was in Kindergarden we used to run around with those fake plastic bananas and pretended we were Cops 'n' Robbers.

Even today, you don't need a knife to hurt someone. Head + concrete wall = pain.

[MadMike]

We weren't allowed to bring in knives then so why is it so crazy that someone get punished for bring a knife into school now?

It's the punishment itself that goes too far. When someone does something that's against the rules, certain things should be taken into consideration like, was the intent malicious, has this student been a problem before, etc. Shipping the kid off to reform school just for wanting to be able to eat his lunch was going way overboard.

Zero tolerance should be called what it is -- "zero intelligence." They don't want to have to actually think when they deal with these situations.

To the poster who pointed out that pens and pencils can be weapons too, I agree. Someone stabbed me in the leg with a sharpened pencil once, back when I was in school. Does that mean pencils should be banned too?

[kiwi]

Does anyone remember when that kid was expelled for pretending a chicken leg was a gun?

WTF!!!!! omg that is funny in a tradgic idiotic way

[powerboy]

So the kid wants to eat lunch and he sent to Reform School, WTF? Wonder what would happen if he wanted to go to the bathroom? Would the school send out the Police

[Nyoibo]

To the poster who pointed out that pens and pencils can be weapons too, I agree. Someone stabbed me in the leg with a sharpened pencil once, back when I was in school. Does that mean pencils should be banned too?

Yes, then they can all be given their crayons and circles of paper when they enter class.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I stabbed a guy in the arm....repeatedly....with a pen in a parking lot.

I wasn't playing around, I hurt that guy. He's lucky all I could get to was his arm (as it was rolled up into my car window at the time) or he'd be blind or maybe even dead.

I dragged him with my car, too, but I'm betting his injuries from the pen were worse.

My ex boyfriend had a grey spot on his chest where he'd gotten a pencil tip broken off under his skin. (No, I did'nt have anything to do with that one)

So yeah. I little kid being excited about scouting and wanting to eat with his new gadget I think a reasonably intelligent person would figure out. A pissed off kid with a sharpened stick is going to be a bit more dangerous.

Schools really tend to be intelligence free zones.

[Dreamstalker]

It's the punishment itself that goes too far. When someone does something that's against the rules, certain things should be taken into consideration like, was the intent malicious, has this student been a problem before, etc.

Zero tolerance should be called what it is -- "zero intelligence." They don't want to have to actually think when they deal with these situations.

Exactly. I remember in grade school (junior high was when the zero-tolerance dumbshittery started), if someone did/brought something that was against the rules, they *GASP* actually talked to the kid! Maybe called parents in if the kid didn't seem to be understanding/cooperating, but that was rare.

A friend jumped on the zero-tolerance bandwagon after 9/11 (what does that have to do with it?); I've had many a frustrating debate with him about this.

[Depot Denizen]

When I was in 1st or 2nd grade, I was punished in class for something I did. I was using my crayons to draw when we weren't doing anything and the teacher didn't like that, so they took my safety scissors away and made me do our construction-paper project without them. I think mom and dad were pissed off at that one.

[Greenday]

It's the punishment itself that goes too far.

No one here seems to be debating the punishment. Everyone seems to just say how it's so terrible that the school has banned kids from bringing knives into school. I agree the punishment is ridiculous, but banning knives is kinda practical.

[lordlundar]

Let's not even go into the kid who was expelled for bringing in drugs and was caught "shooting up" during lunch.

The kid's a Type 1 Diabetic and the "drug" he was "shooting up" with was his insulin dose. Wasn't allowed to make his case, just told "clean out your locker and get out". For some bizzare reason, the school board upheld the decision.

Then there's the other one where a kid was expelled and the school tried to have him arrested (at the ripe old age of 8) for distributing drugs. It was bloody breath mints!